Voltron: Shadow Defender
by The Green Light Wolf
Summary: As Team Voltron comes to grips with the loss of their leader and friend, Haggar covers up the Emperors injuries in a bid to retain control of the Galra Empire. With ambitious Commander's smelling the blood in the water and the knowledge that the Paladins of Voltron survived the battle with Emperor, the High Priestess is forced to summon the Heralds of Zarkon to restore order.
1. Chapter 1

**The Castle of Lions**

"Where is he?"

Keiths voice shook as he broke the silence in the cockpit of the Black Lion. The Red Paladin was awash with emotions, crippling fear mixing with raging anguish. His fists were clenched tightly, and he blinked twice just to make sure he wasn't missing something. But nothing changed. No traces of Shiro remained, aside from the Black Bayard and even then, that wasn't really Shiro's but instead a reminder of who had taken him from them.

"Where the hell is he!?" Keith repeated.

"I... I don't know." Pidge finally spoke up. "There's no rational explanation for his disappearance."

"Perhaps this is the cost of Shiro activating the Black Lions ephemeral wings without the Bayard." Coran mused softly. "We know that he didn't have it going into the battle."

"So, what? His life was traded for a brief boost in power!?" Keith spat, glaring at the Bayard in question.

"It appears that he gave his life, so that we could rid the galaxy of Zarkon." Allura gently place her hand on the young man's shoulder, but he batted it away.

"No, that's not good enough! Shiro shouldn't have had to-" Keith choked on his words, overwhelmed by emotion.

Biting his lip as tears threatened to overflow from his eyes, Keith turned on his heel, shoved past Lance and stormed out of the cockpit. Lance watched his friend go, feeling much the same level of emotion but keeping quiet about it. His eyes darted to the Bayard, then to the floor. There had to be an explanation for this.

"I can't believe he's gone." Hunk whispered, shaking his head. "He can't be gone. It doesn't make sense."

"I believe that the evidence speaks for itself." Allura replied quietly, picking up the Bayard and studying it. "But with this here, we know that at the very least, Zarkon has been taken out of the equation."

"I agree with Hunk. This doesn't make any sense. Shiro can't have just vanished." Pidge said, pausing in thought before turning to look at Lance. "Somebody should go after Keith. And by somebody, I mean you."

"Me?" Confusion marred Lances expression. "Why me?"

"You're the safest option." Pidge explained. "Hunk, Coran and I don't have a particularly strong relationship with him. He gets along with Allura, but as we've just seen, he's pushing her away right now. Shiro was everything to him, so he's forcing his walls up and we know from experience, that you can get past them."

"You do have a way of getting everybody to talk to you." Coran added.

"Fine, fine!" Lance sighed, glancing at the Bayard one last time. "Just... let me know if you guys find out anything about Shiro."

With that, the sharpshooter also exited the cockpit and headed straight for the training room. If he knew Keith, and he definitely did at this point, then the Red Paladin was going to try and sweat his emotions away.

When he arrived, Lance found that Keith had stripped off the upper half of his armour, tied back his hair into a pony tail and was engaged in a vicious duel with one of the training bots. Lance opted to wait this out, rather than interfere and soon enough, Keith bested the bot. It was then that the Red Paladin noticed Lance watching him, eyes widening for a split second before a sneer replaced that expression as his bayard transformed back to its dormant state.

"Why did they send YOU to check on me?" The words were spoken with venom, intended to harm.

"Oh ya know, special connection and all. Bonding moment, remember?" Lance chuckled, but it was a hollow sound. Keiths expression darkened further. "Look I-"

"I don't care." Keith interrupted. "You're here to preach on about how you understand what I'm going through. We all lost Shiro today. Blah. Blah. Blah."

"That's pretty much it, yeah." Lance admitted. Maybe he should have prepared a script first?

"Exactly what I expected from you. Surface level compassion to go with your flaky personality." That was just hurtful. Lance felt a spark of anger ignite in his chest at Keiths comment, but it was quickly replaced by melancholy. Was his personality really flaky? "I can't believe they sent you." Keith laughed, before continuing. "What do you know about loss huh?"

"Well... not much actually. But I-" Again, Lance was cut off and he bit his lip to keep from going off at Keith. He was just hurting. Right?

"I guess you're better than Allura. She would have just turned this into another sob story about how she lost her people." Keith laughed again, and this time, Lance wasn't going to take it.

"That's enough. How dare you talk about Allura that way!" Lance crossed the distance between them as he spoke, the fire of his anger now bursting to life. "She's been nothing but kind to us ever since we found her!"

"Yeah, forcing us into an inter-galactic war and keeping us from returning to Earth. Real kind." Keith's eyes briefly dipped down to look at Lance's hands, which were balled into fists, before his gaze locked with Lances, and he had the audacity to smirk. "What are you gunna do? Hit me?"

Lance almost did it. Grief be damned, Keith didn't get to just take it out on everybody else! But something inside of Lance, a brief flicker of logic, pieced together what was going on. Keith was using the insults as a wall, reflecting the issue so that Lance wouldn't try and get through to him. Just like that, the sharpshooters anger faded and he slowly unclenched his hands. How could he have considered hurting Keith at a time like this?

"Keith, stop."

"I knew you wouldn't do it. You're way to unreliable to actually follow through." Keith said. After a moment, Lance closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around his friend, closing him into a tight hug. "What the heck!? Let go!"

"Not until you stop masking your grief behind these insults." Lance stated defiantly, squeezing tighter to prove his point.

"Let. Go!" Keith began to struggle. "Let me go Lance!"

"I know how much Shiro meant to you." Lance said as the other paladin continued to squirm in his vice hug. "It's okay to let yourself feel that pain Keith."

"I..." Keith drew in a short breath, before going limp in Lances grasp, his own arms wrapping around the Blue Paladin. His next words were mere whispers. "Everybody I care about ends up dying."

"This isn't your fault." Lance replied softly. "It could have been any of us."

"Then it should have been me." Keiths voice cracked and the young man began to shake in Lances arms. "It should have been me."

Silently, Lance tightened his embrace further around Keith, and the two sank to their knees. Keith began to cry into his chest and Lance stared down at the back of the Red Paladins head. Outwardly, he was acting mainly on instinct. This was what he did. Acted as the rock for people who needed him. But being that kind of person hadn't saved Shiro from his fate. As he hushed Keith and let comforting words flow out of his mouth, Lance found himself retreating into his own mind, survivors guilt setting in and merging with several years of self-doubt to form a single thought in his mind.

_No, it should have been me._

* * *

**Galra Central Command**

Haggar stared down at the prone remains of the once great Emperor Zarkon.

Though she had managed to save most of the once fearsome warrior, it was plainly obvious to her that he would never again reach that same peak. And if it was obvious to her, it would be obvious to any of the Galra commanders that longed to ascend the throne. She had silenced the doctors that had initially placed the Emperor on life support, and assigned a group of Druids to keep out everybody but her. The story was that Zarkon had entered a deep meditative trance after an astounding victory over Voltron to restore his energies.

The story would not hold up for long.

With one final disdainful sweep of the Emperors injuries, the High Priestess moved for the door. As she exited the room, she was not surprised to find that the sharks had already sniffed out the bloody water. Four Galra in total occupied the hallway outside of the 'meditation chamber' and Haggar identified each of them silently.

Commander Sniv. Nice enough to look at, but no real accomplishments of note when it came to battle. He was a social climber, always looking to make his way up the ladder and secure more power. Sniv would never be Emperor and he knew it, but that was what made him dangerous. A wildcard that would gladly ally himself with another should he be offered an adequate position once everything was said and done.

Commander Throk. Loyal to the Empire above all else and a skilled practitioner of the martial arts. Intelligent enough to hide his true motivations behind a well-crafted facade of loyalty for the Zarkon, though Haggar had known Throk coveted the throne for decades. Not stupid enough to outright oppose Zarkon, but perceptive enough to catch on to a potential moment of weakness.

Commander Trugg. A Galra that inspired loyalty from her soldiers, loyalty that overrode their dedication to Zarkon. A brute when it came to combat, but an accomplished brute. She had never shown any outright desire to overthrow Zarkon, but the possibility had always stuck in the back of Haggars mind and Truggs presence in the hallway confirmed her intentions. The females presence alone was enough to put the High Priestess on edge.

Finally, Commander Raht. The eldest of the assembled Commanders, but by far the least significant. His appearance would have utterly thrown Haggar for a loop in fact, had she not been made aware of his recent dealings with General Ranveig. It was clear to the High Priestess that Raht was there as a stand in for Ranveig, something that did not bode well. While Trugg was the more immediate threat, Ranveig's play could not be ignored, especially with the General being so far from the capital.

"How does our Emperors meditation fare?" Snive was the first to speak, a smirk playing on his face. "Is his strength returning at an expedient rate?"

"It is sufficient." Haggar snapped, her azure eyes narrowing in obvious irritation. "What are the four of you doing here?"

"I should think that is obvious, High Priestess." Throk said. "We wanted to inquire about how long it would take for our Emperor to recover from his glorious battle. As you well know, a great victory must be complimented with an even greater feast."

"Enough with these honeyed words." Trugg interrupted. "The Emperors Cruiser was almost destroyed, and his armour was disfigured beyond repair. There is no way that he was not injured severely based on these facts, yet you sent out a report saying otherwise."

Silence fell, and tensions arose. Haggar considered her options. With the two Druids behind her, she was confident that they could easily dispatch of the four commanders with their sorcery. However, that would create an even greater problem. Killing the commanders would confirm that something was wrong and if Trugg had told anybody about the cruiser and armour, they would surely move to overthrow the government in her stead. If Raht was killed, Ranveig would surely abandon his conquest of the outlying systems and return to take the throne.

Intimidation would have to be enough.

"Are you questioning our Emperors ability in battle?" Haggar spoke each word as if it were the greatest of threats.

"Of course not." Raht replied before Trugg could. "We simply want to make sure that Emperor Zarkon did not suffer any life threatening injuries."

"Shall I interrupt his meditation to relay these trivial concerns?" None of the commanders, not even Trugg, dared to respond to that question, though Haggar noted the subtle shift in Sniv's expression. He suspected she was bluffing, but didn't have the spine to call her out on the chance that she wasn't. "I thought not. Since you're here, you will all carry out our lords orders."

"What does his eminence wish of us?" Throk inquired.

"Though he achieved victory over the Paladins of Voltron, the Humans managed to slip through our grip. The Emperor has grown tired of their insurrection. The four of you shall be the spearheads of a campaign against the known worlds that Voltron has recently assisted." There was a string of hushed chatter over Haggars words among the commanders. "Commander Sniv. Commander Throk. The two of you will head to Arus in the Javeeno system. Raze the planet and wipe out all signs of life. After you are finished, travel to the nearby Balmera mining facility and do the same."

"As you wish." Throk replied, though Sniv remained silent.

"Commander Trugg. Assemble your forces and sack the planet of Olkarion. Do not wipe out the population as they may be useful, but enforce harsh restrictions and martial law. Squeeze the people so that they cry out to Voltron for aid." Haggar instructed.

"Vrepit Sa." Trugg saluted.

"Commander Raht." Haggar locked eyes with the male before she continued. "Contact our forces on Dvaaros and summon the Heralds of Zarkon."


	2. Chapter 2

**Dvaaros. **

The conquered always begged.

For their lives. For the safety of their people. For mercy to be destroyed upon them. The King of Dvaaros had proven to be a selfish old fool who cared only about himself. As he was dragged from the throne by one of the Galran Sentries, the King showed absolutely no compassion for the citizens suffering outside his palace walls, citizens who were only suffering because of the actions of their foolish, selfish old King.

"Please!" The King tried, as he was forced to his knees. "I'll give you anything you want!"

Commander Eizet was not known for her merciful tendencies. The leader of the Heralds of Zarkon was dedicated to the mission, and the mission alone. She had very little time for the pleas of the weak and defeated. She studied the King for a few moments, lip curling upwards in disgust before she raised the barrel of her rifle to his head and executed the King. As his body lurched backwards and slumped to the ground at an odd angle, his attendants, wife and daughter all gasped in shock. The princess broke into a fitful hysteria moments later but was held securely in place by a pair of sentries.

"Monsters!" The Queen spat, glaring at Eizet. The act of defiance could get her killed as well, but the female showed no fear. Only anger.

"Take the Queen and Princess to the dungeons. Kill the rest." Eizet ordered, turning her back on the scene as the sentries carried out her orders.

The Commander left the throne room, with two of her subordinates in tow. First was the Druid known as Jaygor, who rarely spoke but had proven himself an extremely valuable asset during the Herald's various operations. It was obvious that Jaygor owed allegiance to Haggar above all, like every other Druid, but for now at least, Haggars interests were aligned with Zarkons. Eizet's second shadow was a young Galra soldier named Karbon. He was certainly skilled in the art of death, but his fresh faced appearance and relative lack of special ops experience meant that Eizet felt she needed to keep him close by at all times to assess his gradual progress. The two Heralds were quite the contrasted pair, one hidden behind robes and a mask, while the other was heavily armed and armored.

"Commander." Another of Eizet's subordinates, this time an assassin named Arxus, spoke into Eizet's ear through their personal frequency. "The Kings advisory council has been taken care of."

"Then Dvaaros is now completely incapable of rising up against us. Good work. Rendezvous back at the ship." Eizet ordered.

"Yes Commander."

The line went dead and Eizet lead the way from the palace and into the city. While herself, Jaygor and Karbon had taken control of the palace, an invasion force led by the fifth member of their number assaulted the city streets and occupied the Dvaaros' armed forces. Unlike the other members of the Heralds, Renvak had been a commander himself before his enlistment to the special ops squad and had a particular skill when it came to leading forces into battle. Renvak was a strategic mastermind, which served the Heralds well when they needed to take on much larger numbers than five beings should be able to handle.

"Commander!" Eizet's eyes went straight to the source of Renvak's voice. Predictably, he had set himself up at a table and was having a drink to celebrate his victory as the sentries finished up. "Another happy victory!"

"I expect that your celebration won't keep you from being back at the ship within the next fifteen ticks?" Eizet questioned coolly.

"You wound me Commander. Of course I'll be there. " Renvak's laughter was hearty, and interesting disparity to his bloodied appearance. "Besides, I knew I'd have time to have a quick drink, since you have to go and thank Xizor for his sentries!"

"Ten ticks." Eizet snapped, leaving Renvak behind as the strategist began to protest.

The trio came face to face with Commander Xizor as they reached the city gates. The pompous fool was having himself carried in on the backs of some Dvaarosi females who he'd already outfitted with slave collars. Xizor looked overwhelmingly pleased with himself, despite having done very little to contribute to the operation itself.

"Eizet!" Xizor greeted, offering one of his bearers a clip behind the ears to let her know he wanted them to stop. "Excellent work. Truly the greatest display of Galra strength and ingenuity I've seen in quite some time."

"It would not have been possible without your sentries and gunships, Commander." Eizet reminded him.

"Bah! I will be sure to make your worth extremely clear in my report to Central Command." Xizor gestured to another commander who was standing several feet behind him. Unlike Xizor, this other commander seemed to be completely in control of himself and was patiently awaiting his moment to speak. "That is Commander Raht. He wishes to speak with you about some top secret directive from Command. I'll leave you to it while I examine the capital city of my new planet."

With that Xizor had himself carried off and Eizet crossed the distance to Raht, who seemed to shrink noticeably as they approached.

"Fear." Jaygor whispered.

"Don't need fancy Druid magic to be able to see that." Karbon shrugged. "Boss, he looks like he's gunna melt if you raise your voice."

"Then he'll be thankful to know that I don't raise my voice." Eizet retorted dryly. The three came to stand in front of Raht, who seemed to have lost his ability to speak. "I am Commander Eizet of the Heralds of Zarkon. Commander Xizor mentioned that you carry new orders from Central Command."

"Yes... yes of course." Raht snapped out of his daze, straightening up. "High Priestess Haggar has ordered that you return to Central Command immediately."

"Haggar summons us?" Karbon questioned. "We serve at the whim of the Emperor himself."

"The Emperor has taken to his chambers after a hard fought battle against Voltrons Paladins. The High Priestess-" Raht stopped short, eyeing Jaygor who was clearly watching the commander intently from behind his bone mask. "-believes that she holds authority while the Emperor is indisposed."

"She has been Emperor Zarkon's closest adviser for thousands of years. I see no reason not to carry out these summons." Eizet said after a minute of thought. "Why did she send you specifically commander?"

"So that you may travel with all the safeties my fleet can provide. Voltron was not destroyed, and to our knowledge, they do not know that your special ops squad exist. I believe she intends to use you to hunt them down." Raht explained.

"Very well then. We shall set out immediately."

* * *

**The Castle of Lions.**

Three days had passed since the battle with Zarkon.

Keith only left his quarters when he went to train and eat. Pidge had thrown themselves into studying the interior of the Black Lion and its accompanying Bayard, convinced that there had to be some trace of Shiro left behind. Hunk had been doing what could only be described as 'stress cooking' and was quickly running out of places to store his concoctions. Kolivan had taken his leave, returning to the co-ordination of the Blade of Mamora with the knowledge that the fight was going to be far more difficult than originally believed thanks to the loss of a Paladin of Voltron. Coran was busy making repairs to the Castle.

That left Allura and Lance.

For her part, the Altean Princess had been attempting to hold everybody together. No official arrangements had been made for Shiros funeral due to the lack of evidence that he was actually dead, according to Pidge, but that had only seemed to further darken Keith's mood. The Red Paladin had completely ignored her attempts to check in on him, and the Castle was so expansive that they had yet to cross paths during Keiths rare excursions from his room. Allura had politely partaken in the tastings of Hunks various dishes, but could see the stress lines on his features and wished there was something she could do about it.

The Blue Paladin meanwhile, had been notably absent. Usually he would 'coincidentally' show up wherever Allura was in order to flirt with her, but that ritual had been broken three days prior. According to the logs, Lance had taken the pod down to nearby planets on two occasions, but the reason as to why was unknown to Allura. She assumed he was simply attempting to distract himself by indulging in different cultures, but had asked Coran to keep an eye on the hanger just in case.

Allura entered the bridge, finding Coran busy at work at his own station. The holoscreens were displaying the star map of an unknown system. Upon getting closer, Allura recognized it as the very system where they had done battle with Zarkon.

"Oh, Princess!" Coran exclaimed, noticing her presence. "I was just-"

"I know Coran." Allura's expression was pensive. "Have you found anything?"

"Well, the Castles sensors would have picked up on a wormhole if it opened, so I zeroed in on Shiro's last known location and scanned for any spikes in Quintessence around it at the time of impact with Zarkons mech." Coran tapped a few buttons, switching the display to one similar to a heat signature readout. "As you can see, at the time of impact, Quintessence levels almost doubled."

"But you're not certain if that's related to Shiro, or the clash between Voltron and Zarkon." Allura finished for her adviser with a sigh. "Perhaps you should pass this information onto Pidge? They might be able to find something our sensors can't."

"Sending the data through to their personal terminal now." Coran confirmed, rapidly tapping at the console. Once he was finished, he turned to look fully at Allura. "How are you holding up?"

"As well as can be expected." Guilt washed over Allura and she found herself vulnerable under Coran's concerned gaze. "I brought these Human's into this fight Coran. I was the one who told them that they were necessary to the effort to restore peace to the Galaxy, and now one of them is dead because of it."

"Princess, it's not your fault." Cornan counselled. "This is a war. It was never going to be easy."

"But I should have known better!" Allura snapped, immediately regretting her aggressive tone. "If we had have coordinated further with the Blade of Mamora, waited for reinforcements, perhaps we-"

"Allura." Coran had crossed the distance between them as the princess spoke, placing his comforting hands on her shoulders. "You can't let yourself get caught up in the what ifs. We have to focus on the end result and learn from it."

The mustached Altean drew Allura into a consoling embrace, something that the princess welcomed. She was constantly grateful for the fact that Coran had been the person to survive the destruction of Altea alongside her. Even now, she found it extraordinarily difficult to know that her people were gone, but Allura doubted that she would have gotten very far without Coran's advice. Coran's console began to beep and the two separated as the adviser moved to see what the alert was.

"Lance is taking the pod from the hanger again." With a few strokes on the holoboard, Coran brought up the Blue Paladins most likely destination. "The nearest civilized planet is called Auxus. There's only one city, but its known to have quite a considerable nightlife culture and the Galra presence on the planet is apparently only a single garrison."

"Why does Lance keep venturing out on these solo excursions?" Allura wondered aloud.

"I was looking at the footage earlier, and I think I can make an educated guess." Coran replied, fingers dancing over the terminal.

A clip began to play on the holoscreen of the hanger after Lance had returned the last time. The young man stumbled out of the pod, almost falling headfirst into the neighboring shuttle. He steadied himself and looked around slowly, swaying in place as he did. The Blue Paladin then reached into the pod, drawing out a large bag which he slung over his shoulder, again almost falling over again from the effort. He then slowly, but surely, made his way from the hanger, stumbling to the side multiple times before actually making it out.

"Go back four ticks and zoom in on his face." Allura requested. Coran carried out the request and the princesses eyes narrowed as she studied the image. "His eyes are unfocused and his cheeks are flushed. Also, what is that on his neck?"

"Looks to be some sort of bruising, Princess." Coran replied. "I can say with certainty that Lance is heavily intoxicated here however."

"So, he's going down to these planets to drink?" Allura's eyes widened with realization. "Surely he's not using the vices on planets to deal with Shiro's passing?"

"It seems that way." Coran confirmed.

"We cannot let that continue." Allura determined. "I will travel to the planet as well."

"Princess, is that wise? The Galra presence on Auxus is small, but it's still there." Her advisers tone displayed clear worry.

"I'll disguise myself." Allura said, before adding: "Before I go, I'll see if the Paladins would like to accompany me aswell."

And with that, Allura turned on her heel and exited the bridge so that she could hunt down the others.


End file.
